Thursday, July 10, 2008

Brian EnoMusic is many things to many people, what it is not- is static. It lives and evolves. And like the music itself, the means through which it is distributed are also in flux and perhaps never more so.

And what is change? (besides being a political slogan adapted by every single candidate).

Change, as a positive notion, is a continuity of sincere effort to release and let go of inefficient thought patterns from the past. Change is the agency of transformations and of growth. Some of us
change as a result of "seeing the light". Others change only when "feeling the heat".

In this article we see a little bit of both types of incentives for change. Some visionary, and some reactionary. Yet one thing is certain, change is inevitable. Change or die; and even then, the body in the ground will change.

Now here is a gentleman who knows a thing or two
about changes...
David Bowie's performance on A&E's Live By Request

Back in that bleak midwinter, the January of our discontent if you will, the social music service known as Last.fm announced that it would be launching something called the Artist Royalty Program that allows artists to reap royalties each time one of their songs is played through the site's ad-supported streaming music feature or Web radio. (They just have to upload their music first.) This is good news particularly for independent artists. As the music industry struggles to
find a relevant model that embraces the technological and economic realities of the last quarter century, this method (Championed in the UK by We7, a download service founded by Peter Gabriel) is emerging as viable.

On Wednesday July 9th, Last.fm announced that the Artist Royalty Program has launched and that over 450,000 tracks have been uploaded in tangency with it. In a press release the day of the launch Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel said of independent artists, "We're leveling the playing field by offering them the same opportunities as established bands to make money from their music. The young musician making music in a bedroom studio has the same chance as the latest major label signing to use Last.fm to build an audience and get rewarded".

Rupert MurdochPolitically savvy artists should take note that Last.fm is an alternative to using MySpace as a promotional hub. (MySpace has been owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp since 2005). Last.fm is owned by CBS Interactive. Try the service yourself at http://www.last.fm/music.

Kudos to Last.fm, this service benefits artists but it also benefits consumers!
At the moment it's available only in the U.S., U.K., and Germany,other countries are slated to be added later.

Peter Gabriel

How does such a service work? Let's have a look at We7. Site users can download legal MP3 versions of tracks with advertising attached to the beginning of songs. Four weeks after downloading the track, the user can then download a version without the ad. Artists get paid by the advertisers, music lovers get free tunes, and advertisers reach music fans.
Seems reasonable enough.

After all, artists do need to generate income from their art or eventually no one will be able to afford to be an artist.

We7 major investor and founder, Peter Gabriel, has been involved in several innovative music startups of late, including The Filter, an automatic playlist generation program that is also free to download. He and Brian Eno were major financial backers of OD2, a "digital service provider" that has formed the foundation of many European online music stores. Both Gabriel
and Eno penned the manifesto for MUTHA ("Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists"- a musician's union formed to give artists a collective voice in the development, implementation and general direction of new models in music distribution ) .

“When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.”
--- William James, American Philosopher, Psychologist, and Pragmatist

If you haven't tried the Filter, give it a go at http://www.thefilter.com. In less than a minute, entertainment recommendations appear before your very eyes. It's a great way to discover new
ways to feed your brain! Looking back on the older methods of music distribution, one arguably positive service they performed was to filter amateur or just plain poor music from public consumption. Internet distribution offers so many choices that recommendations can be quite a time saver. After all, of the over 20 million music sites on MySpace, how many would you say are listenable?

“The artist is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements”
--- Anais Nin

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
--- Jimmy Dean (Yes, the sausage guy)

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